Could it be we are just bad listeners?

Luke 18:31-34

I was blessed to be a very insignificant employee of a great Company, and one of the reasons I was treated as significant, is that I was part of a team and our goal was to be the leader in the technology we specialized in.  With $30 billion in sales, 3M employs 88,000 people worldwide and produces more than 55,000 products, so when I say I was insignificant I was not being humble, I was stating facts.  I only worked for one Division Vice President that would call me into his office to ask for my thoughts on a new approach or just to visit about how I was doing.  When that happened I was no longer insignificant, I was a player and was allowed to see a part of the bigger picture, and that is what Jesus is doing with the twelve disciples in these verses.

Often when talking to our Lab personal they would go deep into the process of how we were developing a new product and as they began to explain palmers and co-palmers, cross-linking in the process of development, all I wanted to know was when would the product be available to sell.  I’m sure these guys who had given-up business, friends, and family to follow Jesus were not into much more than when are you going to become king.  Now less you forget the disciples and Jesus were going to Capernaum. “And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.” (Mark 9:33b-34)

These twelve, I’m sure were the envy of many who were followers of Jesus, this was the inner group, and yet many of them were like so many of us, they heard Jesus speaking but did not listen or understand what was being said.  These were the words Jesus spoke to the twelve: “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” “But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.” (Luke 18:31-34 ESV)

Now give these guys a break, it’s not the message they had in their hearts, that message was which one of us is going to set on your right side, who of us twelve is going to be number one?  Do you realize this is the third time Jesus has spoken to the twelve about what was going to happen in Jerusalem, but has Jesus spoken to you about what His plan is for you and it did not happen for it was not your plans. 

Could it be we are just bad listeners, if so take heart, so were these special men chosen before the foundation of the world to carry the message of the cross and a risen Savior, who died for the sin of mankind, and that includes all, and it is by His grace and the faith He has given you to bow your knee to the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

A quote from the book of John 14:21, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he is the one who loves me.  And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice